About The Pharm.D.

Students must be outstanding to succeed at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, but those students enjoy exceptional opportunities.

Building on Our Strengths to Cultivate Pharmacy Leaders and Innovators

Students enrolling in the doctor of pharmacy program at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy began experiencing an enriched curriculum in the fall of 2015.

You won’t sit through a lot of long lectures. You’ll be active. Professors will challenge you to think critically and to solve problems in the classroom, and you will be applying important concepts as you learn them.

You will be immersed in patient care early and continually in your education as a member of an interdisciplinary health-care team.

You will pursue scientific inquiry and learn to create innovative solutions to real-world problems.

Health Care Is Changing

The U.S. health-care system is in need of change to improve both the quality and the delivery of patient care and to reduce health-care costs (see, for example, reports here and here).

In response, numerous calls have emerged for reform in health-professions education to better prepare students.

We are responding to this need, and we are building on our experience as innovative pharmacy educators to better prepare our graduates to be exemplary health-care professionals in a system that seeks to be more collaborative, efficient, and effective.

Employers Want More

At the same time, employers within and outside health care are increasingly seeking inquisitive individuals who are able to think critically, communicate clearly, adapt to change and work effectively in teams to solve complex problems. All too often, students possess great discipline-specific knowledge but lack the skills essential to survive in an increasingly competitive and global society.

We Are Innovating

As if the changes in health care and employer demands aren’t enough, the amount of information about health and medicines that aspiring health professionals must master has grown substantially. We no longer accept the outdated assumption that a professor’s job is to teach you everything you need to know. We recognize that you are a native of this highly interconnected world where information is easily available and freely accessible and technologies abound to support your learning.

In response, we have improved not only what we teach but how we teach to better position you for success.